A Simple Underdark Adventure Story
by Hannibal-Necromancer97
Summary: A devout warforged cleric, a dry halfling warlock, and a completely mediocre human forge an unlikely alliance in this tale of adventure. Simple enough, right? (Title may be changed. I'm open to suggestions.) (Rated T for fantasy violence and some adult language/implications.) (Contains circumstantial spoilers for "Out of the Abyss" by WotC)
1. Prison Break

_" A great evil threatens to consume the world as you know it."_

 _"How can I stop it?"_

 _"It can be stopped, but not by you. Not alone. Build your strength now, for the coming months shall test your resolve."_

 _"...Great."_

/-/

The last thing he remembered was being attacked on the road. Some kind of elves - some two or three of them, skin like obsidian and stark white hair - ambushed him as he was walking. He did his best to fend them off; he even managed to take one of them down before they subdued him with some kind of sleep poison. When he next woke, he was bound with manacles, surrounded by a colorful group of humanoids. "...e's finally awake," said a woman's voice.

He shook the last of the sedative out of his system before looking around. He was in a prison cell of some kind, dimly lit by a lantern hanging just outside the bars, which cast the space in violet hues. The cell was little more than a carved-out section of cave, but it was ample enough to hold him and almost a dozen others. Granted those dozen were all shapes and sizes; he recognized a halfling, a dwarf, three or maybe four gnomes of some kind, a warforged, and even another of those elves. There was also a fishlike humanoid, a taller creature covered in fur, and a sentient mushroom among the ranks, though he didn't know the word for any of them. "You were out for some time," the dwarf spoke again. "Honestly, some of us thought you weren't going to wake up."

"I knew he'd pull through," one of the gnomes said with a smirk. "You worry too much, El."

"Yes," the elf scoffed, not moving his lips once, "another soul to share our last days with. A human, no less."

"Pessimist," the gnome retorted, seemingly unfazed by the remark. He turned back to the human. "Don't mind him; dark elves are all like that. You have a name?"

"Uh, Nathan," he replied, trying to gather himself. "My friends call me Nate."

"Well, Nate, you can call me Jimjar." He gestured to the dwarf woman. "This is Eldeth. She made sure nobody tried to hurt you while you were unconscious."

"It was no trouble," Eldeth said, working the shackles with a small metal pin. "You needed to rest, and we couldn't have Ront or Derendil trying to eat you."

 _"Eat me?"_ Nathan asked incredulously.

Jimjar shrugged. "The guards skipped feeding yesterday. They dragged you in and I guess they just... _assumed_."

"Well thank you, Eldeth. I owe you."

"Don't mention it," she insisted. "Though I fear it may not matter long."

"Why not?"

The halfling, a man in his later years with dark brown hair, spoke up. "The few of us who actually speak Elvish heard the guards talking," he explained. "We're going to be taken to the drow capital before long. It may be tomorrow, it may be a week from now, but we'll all be slaves by the end of the month."

"If you aren't made into spider food first," the warforged added. His voice was low and grainy, like a decades-old record being played through an ancient phonograph. He was covered with moss and patches of rust, and one of his luminous blue eyes remained dark. "Before you woke up, they dragged the orc from out of here and threw him over the edge."

Jimjar shook his head. "Poor Ront. Not even a bully deserves that kind of cruelty..."

"The same will probably happen to any of you if we cause any more of a disturbance." He shuddered, creaking as he did. "They'll most likely break me up for parts; while I'm alive, knowing the drow.

Nathan gulped. "So that's it then? We just wait for our fate to come to us?"

"Your fate," the fish man at the back of the cell finally spoke in a broken drawl, his voice raspy like he was constantly gasping for air though he, too, kept his mouth closed, "my fate, his, hers; fate is what fate is, but it need not be. No changing orc's fate, but maybe change your own?"

Eldeth, Jimjar, and Nate looked around the room before the gnome nodded. "Yeah, I think Shushar has the right idea. We've got enough of us here and cooperative to maybe bust out of here."

"I would agree," Eldeth said, "but Nathan was still recently sedated."

"Give me a day," Nate assured, "I'll be my old self again. We can use this time to plan."

"Need not," came a voice from the door. One of the drow guards stood in the previously empty space, keeping his voice low so he wouldn't alert any others. He seemed in bad shape, a lattice of scars covering one side of his face and two fingers missing from his right hand. "If I give chance to get out," he said, "you take it?"

"Jorlan Duskryn," the dark elf prisoner mused aloud. He spoke the same broken Common Shushar and this Jorlan did, but it came out in clear, full sentences to Nathan. "Finally upset about Ilvara's new favorite?"

Jorlan grit his teeth. "I come not just talk, _murderer._ Offering you friends escape."

"And making one or two assumptions while you're at it, apparently," Jimjar muttered.

"It probably isn't wise to alienate the one person trying to help us," the halfling said, "Especially considering our alternative options." He looked at Jorlan. "Go on."

The guard nodded and cleared his throat. "My shift end soon; will leave cell unlocked and attempt stall next. Will have few minutes. Go to armory across bridge." He pointed across the bridge to a large, hollowed-out stalactite that served its purpose as a tower. "Can jump there. Spiders' web slow fall - not stop - enough for survive."

"What's your angle?" Jimjar interrogated. "Drow don't do shit if they don't get anything out of it."

"No time. Must go now, if at all."

The prisoners all looked at each other, nodding in agreement. True to his word, Jorlan pulled the key from his belt and unlocked the door, but didn't open it himself before turning to leave. He held up three fingers - an indication of how long he would stall for, Nate figured. Once the drow was out of sight, the group proceeded two at a time out of the cell, starting with the smaller pair of gnomes. As soon as they were across the bridge, the beast called Derendil slunk his way over with the other unknown gnome.

Next was Nate. He looked out over the bridge, seeing the last pair waving him across. "So much for waiting to recover..." he muttered to himself.

Jimjar patted his side. "Don't worry, bud. Hey," the gnome looked at him, "I'll bet you five gold that we make it across without getting noticed."

"I'm not much for bets." A thought occurred, and he added, "Shushar and that dark elf don't speak Common, do they? How did I understand them?"

"Oh, you can thank Stool for that."

" 'Stool?' "

"The myconid. Little mushroom guy. They have spores that can let people communicate all in their minds, which helps when many of us don't speak the same language. I, El, Tin Man, and the ball of emotions that came with him all speak Common, but it wasn't until Stool came in that we could _really_ understand the -"

Before either of them knew it, they were at the tower, and the inside was not a pretty sight. Derendil and one of the gnomes were unconcious on the floor - unexpected for a creature of Derendil's size - with multiple stab wounds. Three drow were currently fighting the two other small humanoids, who seemed pretty much unharmed. One of them, the leader by the look of him, looked up at Nate before shouting something in Elvish. The elf to his right waved his hand, and the entire room went completely dark. "...others."

A few more grunts in Elvish. Nate felt a sword just barely graze his shirt sleeve, and reflexively grabbed at the offender in the dark. He felt his hand gain purchase on a bit of fabric as he heard a low blast outside.

/-/

Arwrick peered out over the bridge. "Something's wrong," he reported.

["The guards threw the tower into darkness,"] the drow prisoner noted in Elvish. ["Not even a dark elf can see in or out for a period."]

"They know we're trying to escape," Stool said fidgeting.

The halfling nodded. "If those guards leave that post, all of Velkynvelve will be on us in an instant." As Arwrick said this, the elf pulled the lantern off the wall and threw it. The lamp collided with one of the guards on another bridge. It seemed the man was going for help. "Thanks for the light." He raised his hand, and a pulse of dark red energy flew from his palm towards the unlucky drow, who staggered from the impact. "Hm... Not enough."

The guard fired his crossbow in their direction, catching the halfling in the shoulder. He felt the sedative poison try to work its way through his system, but willed himself to remain concious as the drow continued running. "Vigil," he growled out, ripping the bolt out of his arm, "do you have anything for him?"

The warforged nodded. He whispered a word of prayer and a ball of light dropped from above the guard. The drow held his eyes in apparent pain before falling into the webs below. As far as the three or so giant spiders that appeared were concerned, dinner was served.

/-/

The guard broke away from Nate's grip as relative light returned to the room. Derendil lay still on the floor just next to the human, and one of the gnomes looked close to meeting the same fate. Now that he could see, he took a swing at the drow, who ducked expertly under the human's fist. One of the shorter gnomes pounced on the drow leader, trying to beat him with tiny fists to no avail. A burst of red energy narrowly missed Nate as it sailed past him and into the chest of the guard captain. "What in all Nine -?!"

As he spoke, he was interrupted by a horrible, droning buzz that filled the cavern, followed by a couple of sharp, inhuman shrieks. The two drow and one of the gnomes dropped to the floor clutching the sides of their heads as a group of what seemed like four mosquitoes the size of carriages flew past, being chased by crows with long, thin arms.

Nate remained standing, but only just; he felt like he could collapse at any second, the noise was so unbearably loud. "Gods," Jimjar exclaimed once the assault on everyone's ears began to subside, "what are those things?!"

"Whatever they are," Eldeth said, pushing past the two of them, "they're excellent cover. Come on, I saw the guards carry our things up here."

There was a scream, loud enough to be heard but almost drowned out by the cacophony that still filled the cave. The group turned around to watch the warforged throw one of the drow off the narrow staircase to the side of their former cell. "Response team's taken care of," Jimjar said as Shushar and Stool came across. He walked over and placed two fingers on Derendil's throat. "Big guy's dead. Buppido's not lookin' too good either." He looked up at Nate. "You know any healing magic?"

"No, but I think I can still do something." Nate stepped over Derendil to the gnome that must have been Buppido. He knelt down, tearing off bits of fabric from his shirt in an effort to staunch the bleeding. "That should do it. I hope..."

Nate rose back up as the halfling entered. "Change of plans, everyone," he said as another scream was heard outside. "We're jumping from the northern watchpost. Grab anything you need and -"

"Now just hold on you bossy bubble of gray," Jimjar interrupted, "since when are you the leader? Besides, Jorlan told us the webs were thin enough over here that we wouldn't die from the fall."

"I never declared myself the 'leader.' The location of the northern watchpost places it lower than the armory, which would make us even _less_ inclined to die on impact with the pool. I've run the math through my head twice; you can check it if you want."

While the two of them argued, Nate went up the stairs after Eldeth. The armory wasn't much bigger than the room below, and every wall had raised shelves supporting chests made of some kind of wood. There was a table at one end supporting some kind of toolbag, and long coils of rope hung by hooks embedded in one wall. One of the shelves sat half-hanging broken on another, and Eldeth was rummaging through one of the now fallen trunks, muttering something in Dwarvish. "Need some help?" he offered.

Eldeth glanced up briefly. "Yes, actually. I'm certain my shield and hammer are in one of these chests. Can you help me look?"

"No problem." He opened one of the other chests and began to dig through it. Within, he found a suit of studded leather, a chain shirt, a shield, and some drow weapons. The shield seemed too slick and dark to be Dwarven, so he made no note of it to Eldeth. He did take it, however, along with the shortsword and chain armor, before moving on to the next chest. "So," he said, "what do you know about the others? Who are we escaping with, exactly?"

"I don't know very many details," Eldeth answered, shoving the box aside and reaching for another, "but I know the drow, Sarith, was accused of murder; nothing out of the ordinary there. Vigil, the warforged, he's a warrior-priest of the halfling god of vigilance; and no, Arwrick doesn't care in the slightest. Jimjar and the twins, Topsy and Turvy, are apparently from Blingdenstone, but I don't know much about them other than how Jimjar has a gambling problem. I think Stool is from Neverlight Grove? It's the only myconid colony I can think of. I don't know anything about Shushar or Buppido, though." She removed a sturdy-looking shield and warhammer from the chest. "There you are!"

Nathan stripped the remains of his shirt off and began to don the armor, his search evidently over. "And what about you?"

Eldeth strapped the shield to her arm. "I'm from Gauntlgrym, sort of the dwarven capital of Faerûn. I was on a scouting team mapping a path to Gracklstugh. The drow attacked my squad and killed everyone but me - I don't know why. Next I know, I'm in Velkynvelve cleaning the bastards' living quarters while I wait to be sent to the City of Spiders."

"Damn... sorry I asked."

"It's fine," she huffed. "I needed to get it out of my system. I was actually excited to come out this whole way, but this..." she began to wave when the horn began to blare. _"Schist..."_


	2. Into Darkness

"Great," Jimjar half-yelled exasperatedly as the alarm blared, "Probably getting that Ilvara bitch to come set us straight as we speak."

"It won't matter if we leave now," Arwrick said, seemingly unfazed. "Southern watchpost or here, we have to jump once we're sure they won't follow."

The bridge leading out fell once the twins finished, just as Nate and Eldeth began to come back downstairs. "You all hear that, right?" Nate asked, with Sarith pushing past him to go upstairs, "I mean, over the constant buzzing?"

"We were just discussing the matter. I'm done arguing, Jimjar; we have to go."

Three small bolts flew into the doorway from where a few guards were standing, one of which caught Jimjar's arm. "Gah!" He staggered, looking at the dart. "Well..." he drawled, "that's... not... good..."

Jimjar crumpled, now unconcious and drooling on the floor. Nate rushed over to him and, when shaking him awake failed, hoisted the gnome over his shoulder. "It's now or never!"

Buppido and the twins quickly jumped down as Vigil entered the tower. Eldeth grabbed the halfling and jumped out after them, followed by Stool, Shushar, and eventually Sarith. "I'll take Jimjar," the warforged offered. "I'm sturdier than you."

Nate handed the gnome over. "See you down below," he said. He took a deep breath before rushing out the door, another flurry of crossbow bolts barely missing him as he began to quickly descend. As promised, the array of spider silk slowed his fall considerably before he started to pick up speed again. He twisted in the air, changing course so he landed closer to the middle of the pool.

One hundred feet later, he hit the surprisingly clear water with a grand splash and, figuring any amount of dry land was better than wishing for gills, he made a break for the shore, swimming as hard as he could. He briefly felt something brush his leg, but kicked it away with all the might a farmboy underwater could. A minute of this and he was clutching at the rocky bank, not as winded as he would have expected after such an escape. He saw the others scattered along the beach, tending to one another after the fall.

There was a splash behind him in the water, but not as big of one as Nate had expected to come from a warforged. "Nate, watch out!" Eldeth shouted. He just about had time to duck out of the way as a puddle of gray sludge slinked the rest of the way out of the water. Nate yelled in surprise, drawing his new shortsword.

A moment later, Vigil landed in the water, sending a sizeable wave out from his landing spot. The shock and cold of the water seemed to wake Jimjar as well. "What the -? Who the -? Tin Man?"

With a heave, Vigil hurled the gnome onto the shore, where he landed with a shaky roll and a thud. "I'm sorry!" the automaton called before muttering a momentary prayer.

Jimjar's scraped knee began to clear up, as did a couple of bruises, as the curative magic seeped in. "It's okay," he called back, "just a little cut up!"

Arwrick, meanwhile, began to work on disabling the ooze, firing off a bolt of energy from his palm. The ooze shuddered at the impact, but otherwise didn't give any indication of the spell's effectiveness. "Not enough..."

The ooze continued to attempt to catch Nate with small ejected blobs from its being but, try as it might, he was just too evasive. "Any time somebody else wants to take a swing," he yelled to nobody in particular, "please be my guest!"

He saw Jimjar out of the corner of his eye get up and run over with what seemed to be a jagged bit of rock. "I got you!" he grunted, jabbing the flint into the slime. It didn't seem to like that as it rounded on him, bits of its body dripping off as it evaded another stab.

Nate took a solid swing with his shortsword, finally cutting the blob apart with a faint sizzle. Once he was sure the ooze was inert, he saw that it had eaten away at some of the blade. "Glad that didn't last longer," he breathed.

"If we're done celebrating," Arwrick half-yelled as Stool went around distributing spores to everyone, "we still have to get away from here. Who here can navigate?"

"Is that even a question that must be asked?" their drow escapee responded. He seemed to have grabbed himself a coil of rope and a chain shirt of his own from the armory before jumping. The rope was draped around his shoulder, and the armor sat tucked under one arm. "I have been all across the Underdark; wherever we find we must go, I can take us there."

"Yeah, but you're an asshole," Jimjar quipped. "I can get you surface-dwellers to Blingdenstone. Just gotta get around the Darklake. From there, you can make the trip back home."

From the corner of his eye, Nate saw the twins shift somewhat uneasily, but quickly righted themselves once they noticed he was watching. "Well," he said, "that's great and all, but how will we survive long enough to get there without food and water?"

"I can find food," Eldeth offered, "but I'm afraid I won't be able to navigate. Our scouting parties have never seen past Neverlight Grove. If we make it there, I could probably -"

As they discussed, Eldeth was interrupted by one of the creatures from before slamming into the ground between them, knocking everyone a good five feet from its landing zone. It was much taller than any of them, and very vaguely humanoid in shape with black skin and dark feathered wings protruding from its back. It seemed momentarily to be nursing a broken arm, which it forced back into place with a sickening crunch. It squawked at the group as Vigil's good eye turned from blue to red.

 _"DEMONIC PRESENCE,"_ he growled, his voice changing to a deep drone as a bolt of light formed in one hand. _"ENGAGING HOSTILE TARGET."_ He lobbed the light like a javelin, puncturing the creature's ribcage. _"DETONATION."_ As he said it, the bolt's light began to grow intense. The monster roared at Vigil, making one last lunge. Vigil caught it by the throat and arm, breaking it again before dragging it into the water. He rose, stomping down on the thing's neck, which struggled a full thirty seconds until the bubbles stopped. Soon after, the bolt exploded, destroying the remains.

 _"THREAT NEUTRALIZED."_ Vigil turned around, his eye and voice returning to normal. "Eh? What just happened?" he asked, seemingly oblivious of the recent brutality. He looked down at the creature. "Did I... Did I do this?"

"We'll talk about it later," Sarith dismissed. "For now we leave. This way!"

/-/

A long run south (Nate was pretty sure it was south anyway. Jimjar would later confirm) found the group finally out of earshot of the drow prison. Everyone seemed to be different levels of tired and hungry, save Vigil, as they began to look for shelter and food. "I can help," Vigil proclaimed, "but I wouldn't know what qualifies as edible."

"Anything that doesn't look like someone was cut open and left to rot," Arwrick said.

"Actually, ripplebark isn't all that bad," Eldeth corrected, not looking up from a patch of fungus she was harvesting. "It tastes better roasted, but some people like it raw."

"There's actually food down here that looks like _rotting flesh?"_ Nate asked incredulously. "Disgusting! And I lived on a pig farm!"

"What's a pig?" Jimjar asked, one eyebrow raised.

"It's an animal on the surface that eats filth," Arwrick explained flatly, testing a mushroom by biting into it before spiting it out again.

"We're in luck!" Eldeth cried, returning to the group with a pair of large, cask-shaped fungi under her arms. "Barrelstalks! That's food and water for a short while. Vigil, there was a third one over there; could you grab it?"

"On it."

"What's a barrelstalk?" Nate asked.

"It's a fungus with fresh water inside. These are pretty good-sized ones, too. And, once they're dried up, the husks are edible by themselves. It's how scouting parties from home survive long treks into the Underdark after running out of rations." She knocked on each of the two before nodding. "Sounds like about thirteen gallons, which means, if I've done my math right, that's about... if we dry them out, that's food for a little over a tenday."

"Impressive."

Vigil soon returned with the third barrelstalk, along with a couple of other pieces of fungi. "I found some of that 'ripplebark' you talked about just now. There were also some of these blue ones over there."

"Well done, Vigil! I didn't even know bluecaps grew this far out," Eldeth commended.

"Guys," Jimjar whispered, coming into view from over a rise, "we've got a small problem over here."

Arwrick, Eldeth, Nate, and Vigil followed him to the hill's crest, where he pointed to a group of about five orcs that seemed to be injured. The largest of the five had on a suit of ring mail and a large shield strapped to one arm, with a crude, simplistic eye emblazoned on the front. "They came in as soon as I found some possible food," he explained. "Thought they might leave, but it looks like they're going to make camp."

"Might be able to get the drop on them," Eldeth offered, "Before they have a chance to lick their wounds."

"We can't just kick them while they're down," Nate argued.

"They would," Arwrick countered, "and so will everything down here until we leave. If we fight them now, we open up access to their gear in the short-term."

"For once, I agree with the halfling," Jimjar admitted. "Orcs are mean, and I don't want to risk them seeing us first; even as tired as they look, we could be in for a lot of trouble."

"Sorry, Nate," Eldeth said, "you're outvoted. Vigil, are you coming?"

Vigil nodded. "While I respect Nathan's morals, I am bound to stomp out any threat to all that is right and good."

"A simple 'yeah' would've been just fine, Tin Man," Jimjar sighed. "Don't worry, Nate; I bet you three gold we're in and out with zero casualties."

/-/

The five orcs in question had by this point stopped marching. ["Righ' 'en,"] their leader grunted in the orc language, ["We'll rest 'ere an' start marchin' again in the mornin'. Grol, you got firs' watch."]

["I always get firs' watch,"] Grol complained. ["Why can't Buk do it?"]

[" 'Cos you got good ears. Anythin' happens an' you're the firs' t'know."]

Incidentally, as the Eye said this, some rocks on the south side of the impromptu camp either were kicked or decided themselves that they wanted to tumble down the overhang. Grol decided it must have been the former, as the sound was quickly followed by quiet swearing in Common. ["I think you migh' be righ' on that,"] he conceded, picking his axe off the ground. ["Somethin's over there, behind the rocks."]

Buk spoke up now, pulling a javelin from the sleeve on his back. ["Is it a dwarf? Ain't killed a dwarf since 'at group from the surface. If 'ey got anythin' right, 'ey know 'ow t' fight!"]

"Damn it," a voice spat from the rocks in Common, "they've seen us, haven't they?"

"Guess we're doing it now," another said with a faint Dwarvish accent.

["Yes! Gonna kill me another dwarf!"]

True to form, a dwarf woman in rags with a hammer and shield came charging out, followed by one of those gray gnomes and a giant metal man.

That last one was a little unexpected.

/-/

Jimjar rushed in, the sheer speed of his attack catching one orc off guard as he jabbed it in the calf with his bit of sharpened stone. The orc howled, kneeling down to staunch the new wound before the gnome embedded the point of his makeshift weapon into his ribcage. Combined with his other wounds, the orc dropped dead.

"You little...!" another orc growled, charging into Jimjar with his axe raised. By some luck, the resulting impact didn't just cleave the little man in half, though it didn't exactly tickle, either.

Yet another orc armed with a javelin rushed at Vigil, punching through the automaton's body where he was more wood than steel. The warforged responded by savagely beating the offender with a long bar of iron. Up on the ledge, Nate was sure he heard something crack as the orc fell.

Arwrick, meanwhile, stayed back a respectable distance from any of the orcs. Once he was sure he saw an opening, he fired off a crackling beam of energy at the biggest of them. The blast struck the orc's shield, almost sending it careening into the darkness beyond. The orc leader looked around in his general area, but didn't seem to quite realize exactly where the attack had come from.

Eldeth swung for the nearest orc around her, clashing her hammer against his axe while Jimjar took a slice out of his leg. "Dwarf!" the largest one bellowed, approaching with a spear, _"Kneel!"_

/-/

Eldeth felt her knees try to give out. Somehow, with just a word, the orc had almost removed her from the fight entirely. It was actually pretty astonishing in its own right, as there weren't many orcs that had this power as far as she could recall.

But...

/-/

"I'll be damned if I'm about to bend at the mercy of an orc!" One grunt attempted to capitalize on her struggle, but she quickly sidestepped the attack while the other bit his axe into Jimjar's side, barely stopped by his attempt to block the attack. Said other grunt was quickly blown off his feet by a concussive blast of energy from Arwrick, and Vigil beat the first into submission.

"Your frien's fight pretty good, dwarf," the apparent leader growled, "an' you even resisted my _command_ spell."

"Wow," Jimjar quipped, "a three-syllable word, even. Now you've got me impressed."

The orc sneered. "I was goin' t' offer 'at I retreat an' leave you lot alone, but now I think I'll jus' kill you all."

"Over my dead body!" Eldeth charged, swinging her hammer and catching the brute in the side. The orc responded in kind, jabbing the dwarf in the shoulder with his spear before getting blasted with more crackling energy. Another solid hit from Vigil and the orc went down. "And stay down, you ugly son of a bitch," Eldeth huffed.

/-/

Nate sighed with relief. Even though he didn't feel right attacking a group as weary as his was, he thought for sure he'd have to go down and help. The fight didn't last much more than fifteen seconds, but it had felt like an eternity as each orc's weapon collided with his allies' bodies.

 _That was hectic,_ he thought, returning to the rest of the escapees. Sarith was beginning to put on the armor he'd appropriated. "Crisis averted, everyone," Nate said so everyone could hear him. "Roadblock's taken care of. Now," he clapped his hands together, "have we decided where we're going?"

Stool puffed out a cloud of spores before replying, "Gotta go home. Miss my friends in Neverlight Grove. Safe to rest there." The mushroom bowed its head. "Don't know the way back..."

"Agreed," Sarith spoke through his fiddling with the armor. "Neverlight is incredibly secure. I can take us there if that is our decision."

"Must visit Gracklestugh first," Buppido suggested. "Getting better equipments there. Can lead way."

"So Gracklestugh then Neverlight. Any objections?" The party collectively shook their heads. "Alright then. I say we rest here and head out first thing in the morning."

"What in blazes," Sarith asked, "is a 'morning?' "

"Sunrise."

"Bah, surface dwellers and their sun-based time. That notion will leave you during your time down here."

/-some time later-/

Ilvara studied the slave pen, taking in every detail of the now empty cell. It had been no simple matter to repair the bridge between Velkynvelve's temple and armory after the prisoners detatched it. She was seething at this slight against her will and pride as she turned to the group of hunters she'd requested to join her. ["Find them,"] she leered. ["I want them alive."]


End file.
